Wondering which African Heads of States are big on Twitter in 2017?Â
We have the answer for you in this blog post, where we picked the top 18 based on Twitter followers as at 7 July.
We are using old-fashioned spreadsheets to present the results for numbers of  Twitter followers as a constant, compared to a mix of five different variables.
Using a mobile device? For best experience, view the spreadsheets in landscape mode, or tap on each spreadsheet to move it horizontally if you need to.
Navigation
Here is a table of contents for ease of navigation:
Table of Contents
Twitter Follower Count of Top 18 African Heads of States
As I settle down to enjoy my 100% malt drinkin #Dar, history is unfolding in nearby #Kenya #DemocracyAtWork #Reelection pic.twitter.com/0IkIFa3Zmh
— Bra Willy Seyama (@BraWilly_Seyama) September 1, 2017
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who won the presidential race by a landslide only days ago, is in the second spot.
3 Heads of State from East Africa are in the top 5 – Presidents Kenyatta (1), Kagame (2) and Museveni (5).
Heads of State from Nigeria and Egypt – Presidents Buhari and el-Sisi whose countries are also in the top 3 most populous in Africa – complete the top 5.
Most of the 18 Heads of State’s Twitter handles are verified, which confirms they are the correct accounts.
In an attempt to understand reasons why the identified 18 of the 54 African Heads of States made it onto our Twitter chart, we analysed 10 variables for possible correlations.Â
Theses are tweeting activities, ages of the top 18, their tenures, regions on the continent, dominant languages, country populations, Internet penetration rankings, democracy index rankings and GDP rankings.Â
We present the comparative stats for each of the 10 variables in the rest of this post.
1. Tweeting Activity By Top 18 African Heads of State
Can tweeting activity of the top 18 African Heads of States tell us something about their popularity?Â
Let’s have a look.
When comparing the two rankings, there does not seem to be a direct relationship between tweeting activity and number of followers.Â
Thus, Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta from Kenya and Yoweri Museveni from Uganda – whose tweeting and follower rankings are the same – are exceptions.
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma – whose account was opened in May 2011 – has published only 100 tweets to date, and the last tweet was on 6 October 2013.Â
For all intents and purposes, this Twitter handle has been abandoned, and yet it has the 6th highest number of followers in the top 18.Â
We guess President Zuma has been so in the news lately, thanks to his relationship with the Guptas, that Tweeps hope they will hear from him directly about the whole drama.Â
So far DOLOLO (meaning “nothing”, as they say in South African colloquial)!
President Johan Magufuli of Tanzania is in the bottom three most active Heads of States with 178 tweets in the 8th position by number of followers.Â
His last tweet was published on 7 September 2017.Â
Worth noting that he is one of the (very) few Presidents in the whole continent who tweets in an indigenous language.Â
Given his style of leadership, where he would prefer for his countrymen to hear directly from him, we were expecting that he would also be very active on Twitter.Â
Having said that, he only joined Twitter in July of 2015.Â
Was this in anticipation of winning the elections that took place at the end of October 2015? Maybe.
2. Age (Yrs)
Given the skew of social media to younger users generally, we analysed the ages of the top 18 Heads of States to see if this variable plays a role.
President Nkurunziza of Burundi – who was recently embroiled in a controversy related to the extension of his stay in office – is the second youngest Head of State, and is thirteenth by number of Twitter followers.
President Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia is the oldest Head of State and is also in the fifteenth spot by number of Twitter followers.3. Tenure (Yrs)
Does tenure have anything to do with the top 18 Heads of State’s numbers of Twitter followers? Let’s check.
4. Regions
What about country locations of the top 18?
5. Dominant Foreign Languages
Africa is dominated by two foreign languages – English and French. As a result, these 2 languages are used to divide the continent into mainly Anglophone countries (mainly East and Southern Africa) and Francophone countries (mainly Central and Western Africa).
Our experience is that English is the dominant language on Twitter.Â
Does this have any influence on the showing by the African countries of the top 18 Heads of States?Â
Let’s find out!
6. Country Populations
The next variable we analyse is the country populations of top 18 Heads of State.Â
Let’s have a look.
7. Internet Penetration Rankings
Can Internet penetration rankings – that is the number of Internet users as a percentage of country populations – explain the stacking of the top 18 African Heads of States?
8. Democracy Index Rankings
The second last variable we analyse to see if there is any correlation is Democracy Index.Â
Our theory here is that Heads of States of most democratic countries embrace social media more.Â
For this purpose, we used the democracy index report of 2016 by The Economist.Â
The report allocates scores out of 10 to countries of the world, including in Africa.
Let’s see below if our theory is correct, comparing follower and democracy rankings.
9. GDP Per Capita Rankings
With the 10th and the last variable we test if there is any link between the top 18 African Heads of States’ follower rankings and their countries’ GDP per capita.
Our Finding
Excluding the few exceptions that were pointed out where relevant, there is no direct correlation between any of the 10 variables covered in this post and the top 18 African Heads of States on Twitter by followers.
Our Conclusion
We suspect that Twitter follower numbers have been higher for some of the top 18 African Heads of States because they have been in the news a lot over the years, and on a fair number of occasions for the wrong reasons.Â
Think of Presidents Zuma (South Africa – pending corruption charges), Buhari (Nigeria – the absent President), Nkurunziza (Burundi – refusal to step down in line with the constitution), Gnassimbe (Togo – one-party dominant state run like a dynasty), Museveni (Uganda – alleged rigging of elections), Kagame (Rwanda – alleged despot) and Kenyatta (Kenya – the ICC case).
It is also our impression that some of the political leaders do not fully embrace social media, if at all.Â
This could explain why President Mulatu Teshome of Ethiopia, the country with the second largest population on the continent, does not tweet.
